Huawei Did Not Receive Any Objections from the Indian Government Regarding 5G Trials: CEO

Huawei is ready to start 5G trials in India whenever it receives nod from the government

Highlights

Huawei is expected to work with Airtel, Jio and BSNL for rolling out 5G services in India

Australia and New Zealand banned Huawei from helping their telcos citing security concerns

Politics is behind the debate and developments around security threat from Huawei equipment in various countries, Huawei India CEO Jay Chen said Tuesday. The official, however, said that the Chinese company has not received any objection from the Indian government so far. “Politics is behind all this,” Chen told reporters of PTI when asked about countries talking about security threat from Huawei telecom equipment. Some countries, including Australia, have banned Huawei equipment for the 5G rollout, while the US government bodies have raised security concerns around the Chinese telecom gear firms.

“We believe this is because of politics. Up till now in my communication with the Indian government, nobody has told us you are a problem,” Chen said. The Huawei leadership has made a commitment that they will prefer to close down the company if they are unable to secure data on the network of customers, he said.

Telecom export body TEPC in December requested National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to ban the purchase of equipment from Chinese companies like Huawei, ZTE and Fiberhome for government networks, claiming they can pose a serious national security threat. TEPC has been set up by the government to promote telecom export from India. However, telecom minister Manoj Sinha denied in Parliament having any proposal to consider a ban on telecom gears and equipment made by Huawei.

The company has given a presentation before the Telecom Department to start 5G trials in India and is waiting for its approval, Chen said. “Nobody has yet started field trials of 5G in India. Whenever the permission comes, Huawei will also be one among those who will start 5G trials in India,” he said.

Huawei India Chief Technology Officer Radhey Shyam Sarda said the company has already started installing some of the 5G technologies in Indian telecom networks and more will be done soon as 4G networks evolve and demand for 5G starts coming in.

He said that Huawei leads 5G technology patents and approved standards developed till date as per the third party estimates. “We have already taken the lead by developing first 5G chipset last year. This year Huawei will launch 5G smartphones, and we expect to see 30 devices across the industry for 5G services to be available by the end of this year,” Sarda said.